The competitiveness policy council of the EU decided to start the first four-technology advancement programs in the form of public-private partnerships on Nov,23 2007.
The EU encourages the industry and private partners to support research, development and conversion of future technologies within the EU by providing 7,6 billion Euros in order to strengthen global competitiveness.

There will be four technology initiatives. “ARTEMIS” is about embedded computing systems, “ENIAC” deals with nanoelectronics, “IMI” handles innovative medicine and clean aviation is the topic of “CLEAN SKY”. The program will run until 2017 and provide 1,6 billion Euros for CLEAN SKY and 2 billion Euros for each of the other initiatives.

The industry partners obligated themselves to bring in the same amount of money as the public partners.
Both parties have equal rights in the decision councils and decide collaboratively about the disposition of the resources and the matters of the supported research.

This example shows quite well what technology advancement means. It is an instrument of economic and industry politics that tries to strengthen the base of economic growth and wealth for the future. Private, public or supranational organizations try to enhance innovation and competitive advantage of a region by sharing the cost of research and development projects that lead to marketable products, production and employment. Due to the typical high development costs and the high potentials for future competitive advantages in these areas, the focus lies on high-tech and future technologies.

That’s why technology politics and technology advancement become more and more a location factor for companies. Countries offer certain incentives to the companies when they relocate.

In the EU, there are some more programs beneath the above mentioned with advancement quotes of about 50%. Their primary aim is to enhance collaboration between companies from different European countries, where the partners should be equal in investment and benefit. Information about the advancement of the EU can be found on the EU websites http://ec.europa.eu/grants/index_en.htm.

Furthermore, there are several national and regional advancement programs that also try to strenghten innovation and enhance employment in the countries and regions. Countries typically focus on research matters, while states or regions try to support development processes that immediately lead to employment in the (structurally weak) regions.

In Germany, the program is offered by the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) http://www.bmbf.de/ with quotes of about 50%. The applications should be addressed to the “Gesellschaft für Luft und Raumfahrt” (DGLR) http://www.dglr.de/ or the “Verein deutscher Ingenieure” (VDI) http://www.vdi.de/ where the applications will be approved and forwarded.

Quotes in regional advancement spread from 15-60% depending on different criteria. In Germany, most of the regional programs are initiated by the State Ministry of Economics of the 16 states. Information about technology advancement programs can be found on their websites.

www.baden-wuerttemberg.de
www.bayern.de
www.berlin.de
www.brandenburg.de
www.bremen.de
www.hamburg.de
www.hessen.de
www.m-v.de
www.niedersachsen.de
www.nrw.de
www.rlp.de
www.saarland.de
www.sachsen.de
www.sachsen-anhalt.de
www.schleswig-holstein.de
www.thueringen.de

We are very interested in such programs in your country or trade-area and how they are featured. So please let us know by posting it in the accordant forum:

http://www.beequu.com/forum/public-technology-advancement